All Posts Tagged ‘Book’

I’m trying to reach a milestone in my life by writing a book, something I have never done before.

I had already written a chapter in a collective book about Europe between two Revolutions (1917-1989) when I was a teacher at the University and many articles for the books of the year issued by my newspaper when I was a reporter. But I have never tried something by myself, like this one.

I have begun with lots of energy, and great expectations, The story was flowing nicely and the structure of the chapters I had made was working well. But little by little, my project has began to get a little complicated and now I’m in a sort of crisis of inspiration.

I’m about to go to Croatia for a month, where I’m going to visit, among other places, some of the scenarios where the story of my book takes place. I hope this would help me to return to the focusing I have almost lost and take back my inspiration.

I’m really excited with this trip and I’m sure it will help me in many ways, not only with the book.

Write a summary of the book you’ve always wanted to write for the back cover of its dust jacket.

Ana is a young girl full of joy, energy and hope. She has a boyfriend she adores but the WWII truncates her happiness when her boyfriend, who is a known independent journalist, disappears after an attempt against a train. He spends months in a concentration camp but manage to escape. He comes back like a living skeleton, but alive. Once reunited they decide to get married as soon as possible because they don’t know if they will live enough to enjoy their life together. The war worsens. Ana gives birth to her first child. A baby girl. With the turmoil of the last days of the war they get separated again and this time their love is harshly tested.

From a famous writer or celebrity, to a WordPress.com blogger or someone close to you — who would you like to be your biographer?

I was about to write a new post about this theme when I searched in my archives and I saw that I was going to answer exactly the same than a year and a half ago when this prompt was published for the first time: I don’t want to bother anyone with my biography. I’m sure that no serious writer would be interested in my little adventures as an immigrant child in Spain and later as a Journalist with a no so happy end. To don’t talk about the little interest my story would have for the big audience.

There is nothing special about me. I can write my memories by myself. Or share them little by little through this blog. Remain in the memory of the people I don’t know is not in my dreams.

The only interesting thing about my life is the historical facts I have witnessed first hand: the establishment of the democracy in Spain after decades of dictatorship, the hard years of terrorism, the rupture of Yugoslavia and the Balkans War, and the current political crisis in countries of the European Union, among other happenings. But everything about those years and their facts is already written in books and press reports.

My little story in the middle of all that, has no interest at all. I’ve met many people during my career whose lives deserve a book and they have not an author.

Tell us about something you would attempt if you were guaranteed not to fail (and tell us why you haven’t tried it yet).

I would write a book. In fact I’m on it. I have a good story to tell. But currently I have not the time needed to do a serious work, so I’m little by little doing research and compiling data. I’m waiting for a better time.

Quickly list five things you’d like to change in your life. Now, write a post about a day in your life once all five have been crossed off your to-do list.

there is a difference between the things you’d change in your life and things you’d just do in your life. I can’t change things as my health, but I can do things in the next five years if God gives me life, strength and I have the opportunity.

– write and publish a book
– improve my English
– go or even move to Croatia
– travel to the US
– play piano and paint watercolours

I’ve begun already to work in my book and seeing it finished and,more than that,published, would be a great relief. And also a satisfaction.

With my improved English, I would write interesting, expressive and more extensive posts in my blogs .

Moving to Croatia is an old dream. I would live in the Adriatic coast by the sea, source of inspiration and of peace of my soul

A trip to the US is something I would like to do to meet again my old friends from my years working over there in the late nineties and see once more New York and San Francisco

Finally in my to-do list I put practising two of my favorite artistic activities, so five years from now I would easily play beautiful music pieces and paint good watercolours

You’re at the airport, your flight is delayed for six more hours, and none of your electronic devices is working. How do you pass the time?

Easy: I would take a walk to see what they have in the shops and stretch my legs. I’m always interested to see what’s in fashion. But since I don’t want to spend my money in things I don’t need I only would enter in the bookstore to choose and buy a good book and two or three newspapers and magazines. Then I would go to a bar to have a lunch and I would spend the rest of the time reading my new book.

What’s your learning style? Do you prefer learning in a group and in an interactive setting? Or one-on-one? Do you retain information best through lectures, or visuals, or simply by reading books?

Lately I think I retain best information through lectures I chose and reading books. A little old-fashioned I guess.

All depends on the subject and the teacher. Good teachers are the key. What I remember from my years at the University are not the styles but the teachers that left a deep impression in my life.

Those years have passed. but I didn’t stop learning. Learning from life mostly but also learning from teachers and books. To learn a language I definitely would prefer a group but in almost all other subjects I’m a do it by myself person so I would attend a lecture or read a book or follow an on-line method and experiment the results at home.

Ink and oil. From the printer machine. A smell that means Dad had taken me with him to check his last book’s printing or to the newsroom. I love being with Dad. I don’t understand what he’s doing but I now is something important by the way everybody is addressing to him.

I know about his books because he is writing at home. And I know he writes different books. Some of them to his students. Others, called novels, telling long stories. Others, with shorter writings called poems. I know some of his poems because he use to read them to Mom. Sometimes she doesn’t like to listen. She becomes shy and tries to escape. An it’s because they are about her. About how much Dad loves her. I don’t understand. I like that poems the most. I know some sentences by memory.

I like a lot watching my Dad at work. He looks so important, so respected. I’m proud of him. He is my hero and I like to walk by his side. I feel important too being with him in these places smelling ink and oil from the printer machine.Daily Prompt: Smell You Later.

I don’t think my biography is worth to bother a writer to spend his or her time working in a book. Nothing special, a normal life with some little adventures, but mostly a very boring stuff. I like to write about my memories sometimes, but I wouldn’t like to see others writing about them, because there are mine. No one will touch them.

I wouldn’t like to see my life in a book written by another person who would sell it as a merchandise and under his or her point of view, maybe in conflict with mine, because my true life is not commercial, that’s for sure. Is not a good idea. Your life for $9.99 in the bookstores? What an embarrassment.

Is another story when the subject of the biography is a personality who have big achievements or a very interesting story, and already died. Then you have a complete story to tell and it’s not easy. To write a biography you have to investigate and document and study the works and the life of the subject of your book very carefully searching a lot of sources and interviewing witnesses if they are available. A very difficult task. In the literature there are many good historic biographies of this kind.

But that’s not my case and I guess never will. Thank God I’m alive and when I die my average life will not interest a single biographer.